Terror, fear and panic

Monsters were distributed in grades. The normal monsters were the ones they killed on the road. 99% of the monsters were in this category.

The Rare monsters were the ones Matt killed. Those 3m uglies.

Then came the 'Elite' rank monster, the one that Ashton and Sam killed together. As the grades passed the monsters became more powerful, more frightening.

"M-My place is just 5 minutes away from here. We can get in there in no time." Sam said

He didn't know whether he should cry or laugh right now. He was happy now he could go home and see his family. But sad when he saw the situation they were in.

"Start walking then. I am behind you." Matt whispered as he slowly rubbed Ashton's face.

"No. Let me. I will take care of Ashton and you kill anyone who gets in the way. We can't waste any more time here." Sam replied as he hurriedly picked Ashton in a bridal way.

Matt didn't say anything. He just stood up and started walking outside of the mall. And truly all the monsters ran away when they went outside. It was the same as before when they were running in fear. This time he knows what they were running from.

There were more awakens like the ones Sam and Ashton killed. There must be. There had to be. There got to be.

Well, at least the growl they heard before was more powerful than the growl of the one they killed just now.

"My house is on the other side of the street," Sam whispered as he showed the way.

No monster got in their way, no, it was right to say that every monster within 500 m ran away in fear. And within 3 minutes, they stood in front of Sam's house.

It was big.

Calling it the house would be an understatement. It was as big as a bungalow but it was covered with walls from all four sides.

Security was tight. CCTVs were all over the place. And the door was still intact. That means no awakened attacked this place yet.

Sam opened the gate directly. They hurriedly went inside the house. The house was silent. Too silent. The more silent it was, the more fear Sam felt seeping inside of his heart but he ignored it and without saying anything crossed the hall and directly went upstairs and entered the third room.

Sam put Ashton down on the bed as he looked at Matt "I will see if my brother is here. He will know what to do."

Matt looked at Sam and just nodded.

Sam hurriedly went outside to look for his siblings.

Matt who was silent and calm from the beginning now had tears running down his eyes. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Ashton's whole body was burned black like charcoal. His skin was charred. His hairs were gone. His breathing was shallow. And he couldn't do anything but just look.

"A-A-Ash." Matt stuttered as he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out except Ashton's name. And then everything came rushing to him. Terror, fear, panic. He felt himself shuddering.

At the end of the day, he was just a nine-year-old kid. He had nothing except his Ash. And now Ash was lying on the bed, all burned, and he didn't know what to do. For the first time in his life, he felt so useless.

"Cards. Yes. Cards. Cards can save Ashton. Those purple cards helped stabilize his breathing. If I find more of them and make him crush them then it will all be alright. Yes. I-I just need to kill more awakens, get more purple cards, and Ashton will wake up." Matt mumbled as he smiled but tears were still falling from his eyes. He just nodded his head like he finally found the solution.

"Just need to kill more, until I find enough purple cards. But first, I need to wait for Sam to bring his brother and check Ashton up. Then I will kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, and kill, until I find a solution. This game world has to have a solution. I just need to find one. You need to be strong, Matt. For your Ash, you need to be strong." Matt mumbled.

The more he mumbled, the more his emotions stabilized. And the more his emotions stabilized, the more he reasoned with himself, as finally, he came up with two solutions.

Either kill until there were enough purple cards for Ashton or find an item that could save Ashton's life.

.........….

Sam's house layout was pretty simple, at least that's what it looked like.

On the ground floor, there was a big hall, kitchen, a restroom.

On the first floor, there were three bedrooms, one guest room, and a library.

And the second floor was restrictive, only Sam and his younger brother Chris used it. Others are prohibited from entering it.

But other than that, there was one more room that was not known to anyone besides Sam and Chris, not even their younger sister Jade had any clue about it.

Sam knew if Chris and others were in the house then they must be hiding there. Other than that, there was no place for anyone to hide in this house. Moreover, that room was fully loaded.

Food, weapons, phone, laptop, generator, first aid kit, anything, and everything could be found in that room. It was made as an emergency bunker by Sam.

Without wasting any time Sam ran towards the library. There was a secret passage there that led directly to the underground bunker.

No one enters the library besides the family members. Even the workers needed permission to clean it.

Sam entered the library, went to the third book cabinet, kicked the below two times, then paused, then two times, then paused, and then three times.

With a click, the sixth book cabinet which was at the end, pinned with the wall sidestepped.

Sam ran and entered it.

Some stairs were going downstairs and there was only enough space for one person to walk one at a time. Sam hurriedly descended the stairs and saw the door locked.